


Unwinding the Lie

by Adventurousmind



Category: Rizzoli & Isles
Genre: Conflict Resolution, Gen, More honesty than Jane would have liked to hear, and she's not sure what to do with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:14:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29090373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adventurousmind/pseuds/Adventurousmind
Summary: Post 3x02, Jane is at the hospital, waiting for Maura to wake after her leg is treated, but something is bothering her. She sneaks away while Maura is still unconscious to have a conversation with different patient to resolve the issue.
Relationships: Maura Isles & Jane Rizzoli
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	Unwinding the Lie

**Author's Note:**

> Woohoo! I promised more stories so I'm giving you this quick shot while I continue working on my yet-to-come multi-chapter piece. 'T' for language

Jane waited until Maura fell back asleep in the hospital bed. After the ugly gashes that Jane had ripped through her were well cleaned and sewn up by expert hands. After Maura had groggily come to, reaching out, uncoordinated, for Jane’s hand and given it a squeeze. After the pain meds kicked in fully and the nurses guaranteed that Maura would be asleep for the rest of the night. Then, only then, did Jane tiptoe out of the room and head to the trauma step-down unit.

The uniforms guarding the door let her pass without comment, and Paddy Doyle wordlessly turned off his tv. “Rizzoli. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“I didn’t expect to come back,” Jane admitted.

“So what brings Boston’s finest, so recently cleared of any involvement in my dealings, back to my chambers?”

“Why did you lie to Maura?” Jane blurted, hands stuffed in her pockets.

“Which lie?” he asked, casually.

“When you told her you would have shot me. You had the chance to win her over, but you lied instead?”

Paddy chuckled in a way that made Jane’s skin crawl--mostly because it wasn’t a creepy laugh, it was so normal. It was throwing Jane a little off-balance that this man could be so normal. 

“You made the right call, Rizzoli.”

“What?”

“Shooting me,” he said, looking pensieve, “it was the right call.”

Jane could only repeat herself, “What?”

“I wouldn’t have shot you, well, wouldn’t’ve killed you. Maybe in the leg as a last resort, but your partner was fair game.”

He chuckled again at Jane’s expression, which she was certain was gobsmacked. 

“Look, you and me, we’re on opposite sides of this game. Natural antagonists. But that doesn’t make us enemies. And when you’re on my side of the game long enough, you know someone out there has a bullet with your name on it. Getting shot is part of the life.”

“Why wouldn’t you shoot me?” Jane asked, still dazed.

“You are the best thing that’s ever happened to my daughter. I think killing you would have killed her just as surely as letting that bastard ladder boy shoot her.  
“Look, kid, I know better than anyone the trouble I could bring to Maura’s life. I’ve known it since before she was born, and if I had my way, she woulda lived her whole life without me in it. But that’s not how the chips fell and we gotta do the best with what we got. Any relationship she coulda had with me is doomed from the get go. If the cost of keeping you in her life is one little lie that ends something that never coulda been, I’m gonna do it.  
“You and me, there’s things we know that I hope to God Almighty Maura never learns, and one of those is pulling a trigger on another human being. Reacting in a firefight. Both of us hope she never understands that, I think. So she doesn’t get it, but I do, and I’m telling you, Rizzoli, you made the right call.  
“Besides, we both know you’re a better shot than this. If it weren’t for that damned catwalk, I woulda walked out of there on my own.”

Jane’s mouth slammed shut. She hadn’t thought about shooting him somewhere non-lethal, but it was true, she was usually a better shot than that. “I’m gonna go before one of us says something incriminating.”

“Rizzoli. You wouldn’t have come to the hospital just for that. What happened? Is it Constance?”

Jane hesitated. “Maura and I were in a car crash. She had some weird thing with her leg, but it’s all sorted out now. She can go home in the morning.”

“You took care of my girl?”

“Always,” Jane said through gritted teeth. She did not want to be having a cordial conversation with this man. She did not want his good opinion of her.

“Good,” he said quietly, then raised his voice enough that the unis outside could clearly hear. “Fuck off, Rizzoli. Leave me the hell alone. You already shot me, what more do you want?” He winked at her.

Fuming, Jane stomped out the door. He just had to have his bloody code of honor, didn’t he? He wouldn’t even let her hate him in peace. Jane headed back to Maura’s room and slumped into the chair.

* * *

The first thing Maura saw when she woke, aside from the stark walls of the hospital room, was Jane. Not for the first time, Maura wondered over Jane’s magnetic nature. The other woman could pull her so strongly—her eyes found Jane in any crowded room, she ended beside her at every crime scene, they ended exhausted days together in the same bed.   
“Jane,” she mumbled, just loud enough to wake the detective sleeping restlessly in a too-small chair, her long legs stretched out in front of her.

Jane woke in the way that broke Maura’s heart every time it happened—noiselessly, body stiff and unmoving, heart pounding until she fully came out of the nightmare and assessed her situation.

“Jane,” Maura said again, softly, trying to ease the panic she knew had flooded her friend.

Jane’s eyes fixed on hers and Maura could see as the remnants of her dream faded away and clarity returned. “Maura,” Jane said, her voice pitched even lower just after waking. “You’re awake.”

“You stayed.”

“I wouldn’t leave you. Not you. Not ever.”

Maura, startled at the earnest, heartfelt words, began to cry. It was such a turnabout from their conversations prior to their adventure-gone-wrong. It was everything Maura wanted and needed to hear. 

“Hey,” Jane said softly, scooting the chair close to the bed so she could wipe Maura’s tears away. “Don’t cry, everything is gonna be just fine. We’ll talk when you’re feeling better, okay? But it’s gonna be just fine.”

Maura smiled at Jane. “Thank you. For that and for saving my leg.”

“Well, you were the one that got us out of the car with your morse code and freaky gps coordinates, so I think we can call it even.” Jane smiled crookedly back at her.

Maura tried to wade through the confusing tumble of half-delirious memories of the night before. She didn’t remember much, except that Jane was always there. “When can I leave the hospital?”

“As soon as the doctor checks over your leg one more time. I can call him now, but I expect he’ll be by soon anyhow.”

“That’s fine, I can wait. Have you been here all night?”

“Yeah, I slept fine in that chair, so don’t go fussing,” Jane teased, then hesitated. “Okay, full disclosure, I did leave the room once, while you were sedated. I—I went down to see Paddy.”

“What?” That was so far from what Maura expected that it took her a moment to process it. “Whatever for?”

Jane rubbed at the scars on her palms. “I wanted to know why he lied to you.”

Maura arched an eyebrow at her and waited for her to continue.

“When he told you he would have shot me, he was lying, and I wanted to know why.”

“And did he tell you?”

Once again, Jane hesitated. “Yeah,” she admitted. “And he said he would’ve shot Frost, even if he wouldn’t shoot me. But he, um, said he didn’t want to hurt you by shooting me. So, I guess I was wrong that I was in danger, but Frost still was, so I’m really sorry but I can’t regret it.”

“And he just… told you all that?” 

“Yeah. The asshole was all nice about it, too. Told me I made the right call for shooting him, which is bonkers, by the way, and made fun of me for not hitting him center of mass, and did all quiet like so the unis at the door didn’t hear anything until he loudly told me to fu- er, frick off?” Jane ranted, still rubbing at her scars and avoiding eye contact.

Maura just blinked at her. “Why are you telling me all this?” Surely it was to Jane’s benefit if Maura kept believing that Paddy would’ve shot her.

Jane looked at Maura, eyes shining with worry. “I don’t want to be another person who lies to you, Maura. You’ve had too much of that. You deserve the truth, especially from me and anyone else who claims to love you.”

Maura took Jane’s hand and kissed the scar on the back of it before squeezing softly. “Thank you.”

Some of the tension visibly drained from Jane’s posture.

“You were right, Jane, we’re going to be okay.”

Jane’s blinding smile, dimples and all, settled something in Maura’s chest that had been aching and agitated since the shooting, and she finally let herself believe that it was, truly, going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't much care for the direction they took with Paddy in season 4, after making such a point early on that he was still a man with rules, and honor, and principles. So this is in line with my interpretation of his character from the early seasons.


End file.
